Lemon Rolls

Oh boy, it's been so long since I last posted. I was in Vancouver visiting Tristan's family and I've abandoned my blog for over a month. But I'm back! And since I'm avoiding going through all the photos I took on my trip (we're talking over 900 photos) I'm back to blogging with a bread recipe.

I recently found bags of Meyer lemons sold at my local supermarket. I rarely see Meyer lemons sold in Japan so I grabbed two bags, a total of 12 lemons, with nothing particular in mind. With Kobe being 96.8°F (36°C) and ridiculously humid, I wanted something that doesn't take long in the oven or something that can be made without turning on my oven. When I gave Tristan the option of no-bake lemon cheesecake or sticky lemon rolls, he chose the latter. These lemon rolls are fluffy, buttery, perfectly sweet with a bright sunny flavor from the lemons.

These lemon rolls use the same bread recipe as my strawberry chocolate rolls. If you have a bread machine, put all the ingredients into the machine, put it on the dough setting, sit back and relax. What the dough setting does is knead the dough for 10 minutes, let it rest for 10 minutes, knead again for 10 minutes, and lets the dough rise for 30 minutes. If you don't own a bread machine and you're not in the market for one, you could do this by hand or with a stand mixer, but you would want to use warm milk, add the dry yeast and let it activate for about 5 minutes before adding it to the rest of the ingredients.

When the dough is ready, take it out onto a floured surface, cover and let it rest for about 10 minutes. Roll it out into a 16in x 11in (40.6cm x 28cm) rectangle. Cover the surface with softened butter, followed by the granulated sugar and lemon zest. Some people like to use melted butter but I find that it gets very messy when I go to cut the dough, so stick to the softened butter. Tightly roll up the dough into a log and cut it into 8 even pieces. Lay them out in a 9-inch pan greased with butter and lined with parchment paper. Cover the pan with a clean tea towel or plastic wrap and let them rise for 30 minutes.

While the lemon rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 392°F (200°C) and bake them for 15 to 18 minutes.

When they come out they should be nice and golden on top and your kitchen should smell like a bakery. While the lemon rolls are cooling, make the cream cheese frosting. In a small bowl, combine the cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and lemon zest.

All you have left to do is take the lemon rolls out of the pan, smear the frosting all over, and tuck in!

You've got to eat at least one lemon roll while they're still warm. It's really when they're at their best. Incredibly fluffy, sticky from the frosting, full of lemon flavor, and just delightful. You have to make them. Bring them to brunch with friends, bring them to work to share with coworkers, or don't tell anyone you're baking these and devour them all on your own.

What did you make this weekend?